2021 is coming and we are ready:Interview with Eleine

Eleine releases their new album “Dancing In Hell” friday the 27th of November. I got the chance to do an interview with Madeleine and Rikard ahead of its release.

3 albums and one EP in six years seems productive.

Rikard: Thank you very much! Yes we agree, we work very hard and when you do that stuff happens. Nothing’s ever served, all is earned.

I read in an interview that you would like to “build up humanity”. And as I see it your music is very much so. Grandiose and magnificent with an “I can take on the world” feeling.

Madeleine: Yes, that’s right. We write what feels right. A kind of therapy, it mirrors a lot of things we’ve gone through.

Rikard: We have a good connection with our fans, the Eleine Legion, via our social media and Patreon. We have heard a lot from there about how our music has given them strength. It is amazing to hear that what we do inspire and strengthen people.

The New album. There are especially three songs that stands out for me
“Ava Of Death”, “As I Breathe” and “Where Rotting Corpses Lie” (mostly because it is such a Formula of A Death metal title).

Rikard: “As I Breathe” is a straight forward song, where the orchestral arrangements doesn’t come in until the chorus, it has more of a melodic death metal vibe over it. This is a track where we felt it didn’t need growls. We just went with what felt right.

Madeleine: It would be cool to hear a band cover that song and have only growls though! That would be cool.

”Where Your Rotting Corpse Lie”.

Rikard: Thats the ultimate song of deceit and retribution.

I´m probably the only one who reacted to the Joe Satriani-like guitar part in the beginng of ”Die from within”.

Rikard: Well, I haven´t listened to a lot of Joe Satriani but I take it as a compliment. A fun fact about ”Die From Within” is that the introduction solo is actually the demo guitar I recorded

Describe the feeling when you hear the final product of a song and you realise that the demoversion is the same you hear on the record.

Rikard: It’s very cool, very ”true” haha. Mostly cool for me I guess. It just sounded so good, raw with a lot of emotion, and it felt unnecessary to try and reproduce that emotion.

Releasing an album 2020 and knowing that you can´t promote it live. How does that feel?

Madeleine: The album was planned to be released in November of 2020 some time ago. When the pandemic broke out we were on tour in Europe. Three of total five weeks were finished. But It gave us so much. We came back home, mid March and had the final recordings done in May/June. However we did discuss if we should postpone the release but we soon came to the conclusion that we wanted to keep the date we set. We really, really wanted to. We also knew that it would be appriciated by our fans. All artists are struggling right now, but so are music lovers. As much as we wanted to release it for our own sake we wanted to release it for the fans. We get daily messages from fans who thanks us for releasing new music in these times. And when all this is over we will be back on the road again for sure.
We have plans on how to move forward. 2021 is coming and we are ready.

To be placed in certain genres and categories as a band. That can be tough. I got Within Temptation vibes the first time i heard your music. Do you get that comparison a lot?

Rikard: Well, that is the first time we ever heard that comparison haha. Categories and genres makes it easier to explain what bands sound like. We play metal, plain and simple, but metal has such a wide spectre. I would call our music Dark Symphonic Metal. But hey! ”Eleine Metal” has a good ring to it right?

Madeleine: I see what you mean by placing bands in categories and genres. It’s not always a good thing though. We sometimes get messages like ”I don’t usually listen to symphonic metal, more into death and black metal, but you guys are great!”.
You should always check out new music not put everything in the same box.

Best tour you´ve done?

Rikard:Each tour has its own memories. A great one was when we joined Arch Enemy on their Swedish leg of the ”Will To Power” tour. Met good people, made new connections. Our first ever tour in 2016 with Moonspell was also very rewarding. A kind of fire test of touring.

Madeleine: To meet people who are down to earth is appreciative. Every tour has been rewarding.The best part is of course to meet our fans.

Worst Gig/Tour?

Rikard: We always give 110 per cent when on stage. So there are no bad gigs as such. Lesser good circumstances though. I remember one gig in England where the PA caught fire.That was a bit messy so to speak.

Madeleine: It’s the circumstances around gig that hasn’t been top notch every time. Both Rikard and I have been on stage with high fevers and have small blackouts from that gig but we nailed it anyway and did a great show.

Madeleine- The model career, how is that going?

Madeleine: I haven’t stopped. For me its like anything else, all art goes hand in hand. This year though has been all about the recording of our new album, we’ve recorded 4 music videos (we create our own music videos). And at the same time it’s been a daily struggle as both Rikard and I are full time musicians. So this pandemic really knocked us down. I hope 2021 gives me more time for my modeling.
Photography is another thing I am very into, it sometimes gives me inspiration for new songs and I can get vivid photo ideas from some of our songs as well.

How does an Eleine song come to life?
Madeleine: Both of us are writing songs, I sometimes first write in Swedish, Rikard has a good English vocabulary so it’s easy for him to come up with fantastic formulations that describes a thought or a feeling in a perfect way.

Rikard: There is no ego involved at all. We both write a lot and help each other out to finalize the song. We write about what we know, feel and what we see. If it feels right we continue working on the song. The only rule is that there is no place for an ego at all in Eleine.

Final words from Madeleine and Rikard:
We look forward to the release of the new album. We look forward to meet everyone in the Eleine Legion again when the world opens up.
Stay true, stay metal